"You," he said, "have set a
noble example to your oppressed brethren: isolated as you are, and cut
off from all succour from the mainland, you have defied all perils,
and thrown in your lot, for better or for worse, with the friends of
liberty. Your gallantry and self-devotion has given you a just claim
to the gratitude of Sparta and of all Greece." The revolt of Scione
was indeed a daring defiance of the Athenian power, for since the
capitulation of Potidaea, which occurred seven years before, the
inhabitants had been in the position of islanders, exposed to the
whole maritime power of Athens. For the moment, however, the people
were carried away by a transport of enthusiasm, and little dreaming of
the terrible vengeance which was to overtake them two years later,
they greeted Brasidas as a deliverer, and vied with one another who
should honour him most. He was publicly presented with a crown of
gold, as the liberator of Greece; and in private houses he was
wreathed with garlands, and surrounded with worship, like a victorious
athlete.
But a few days before the defection of Scione all the ambitious
schemes of Brasidas had been checkmated by the action of his own
countrymen at home. For some time past negotiations had been in
progress between Athens and Sparta; and since the battle of Delium,
and the rapid successes of their great enemy in Thrace, the Athenians
had been more disposed to come to terms.
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